By Tiernan Ray

Here are some things going on this morning in your world of tech:

Shares of Apple (AAPL) are up $11.13, or 2.2%, at $520.02, after the stock was upgraded by Société Generale‘s Andy Perkins raised his rating on the shares to Buy from Hold, setting a $575 price target, writing that he’s seen “positive data points” in recent weeks that suggest “momentum has been maintained” since Apple announced selling 9 million iPhone 5S and 5C units in their first weekend on sale, which took place last month.

Tomorrow, of course, is the day Apple will host a media event in San Francisco, and some folks today were offering their perspective on what that means. Cowen & Co.’s Tim Arcuri today reiterates an Outperform rating on Apple shares, writing that “this will be the first full hardware upgrade since the 10″ was introduced,” referring to the iPad, “thus, we feel a low 20MM’s iPad unit number for CQ4 is okay.” He thinks while an iPad mini with a higher resolution Retina Display may be unveiled, it likely won’t be shipping in substantial volume until the March quarter.

Speaking of tablets, Gartnerthis morning offered updated forecasts for the market, projecting tablet shipments to rise 53% this year, to 184 million, units, while traditional PCs will decline 11.2%, to 303 million units. Tablets may rise another 43% next year, to 263 million units, while PCs may decline another 7%, to 281.6 million.

Gartner also projects that shipments of devices running Apple’s iOS will make up 271.9 million units this year including tablets, phones and Macs, while Microsoft‘s (MSFT) Windows will make up 331 million units, across multiple device types, and Google‘s (GOOG) Android may ship on 879.9 million devices.

Shares of cellular tower operator Crown Castle International (CCI) are down $2.42, or almost 3%, at $73.54, after the company this morning reported Q3 revenue that topped consensus but missed on the bottom line. The company issued a forecast for Q4 EPS of 10 cents to 24 cents, which was below the average estimate of 19 cents. This came after the company said this morning it will buy the rights to 9,700 tower sites from AT&T (T) for $4.85 billion for a period of 28 years. AT&T will keep its equipment in the towers and pay a minimum rent of $1,900 a month, per site, for at least 10 years. The company intends to fund the operation with issuance of 36 million new shares of stock, on top of its existing 293 million shares outstanding.

AT&T shares are up 40 cents, or 1%, at $35.01.

Crown also said it expects to start a dividend of 35 cents per share per quarter with the first quarter of the new year, assuming it successfully achieves REIT status, as it intends to.

Shares of SAP AG (SAP) are are up $3.43, or almost 5%, at $77.18, after the company announced Q3 revenue of €4.06 billion and EPS of €0.78 per share. That was a bit light of the consensus of $4.15 billion on the top line, but EPS of 78 cents was in line with expectations. The company reiterated its full-year expectations. Bernstein Research‘s Mark Moerdler, reiterating an Outperform rating and an $89 price target, writes that the results look especially good against the backdrop of such recent disappointments as Citrix Systems (CTXS), which warned on October 10th. Moerdler notes positive results for the Hana in-memory database product, with revenue of €149 million, up 90% in constant-currency terms.

Also among earnings winners this morning, shares of firewall vendor Check PointSoftware Technologies (CHKP) are up $2.68, or almost 6%, at $61.09, after the company this morning reported Q3 revenue of $344 million and EPS of 85 cents, slightly beating the consensus for $343 million and 84 cents.

CNBC‘s David Faber this morning disused recent speculation that Netflix (NFLX) might do deals to put its service on Comcast (CMCSA) and other cable offerings. Faber said in his conversations with content owners it was impressed upon him how difficult such a move would be. “you’ve got a number of people I’m talking to saying, Not so fast,” said Faber. He notes the prospect of an HBO, for example, possibly rebelling and making its own over-the-top offering. “For those who are believing it’s a near-term thing, I think you have to take another look.”

Netflix shares are up $10.91, or 3.3%, at $344.41, in advance of its earnings report after the bell today.

Shares of Salesforce.com (CRM) are up $1.15, or 2%,a t $55.25, after Raymond James’s Terry Tillman raised his rating on the shares to Strong Buy from Outperform, and raised his price target to $64 from $55, after raising his estimates to account for “an increase in core CRM revenue and an aggressive ExactTarget revenue assumption of ~$400 million.”

Shares of Tellabs (TLAB) are up 9 cents, or 3.8%, at $2.44, after the venerable vendor of telecom equipment this morning said it agreed to be acquired by private equity shop Marlin Equity Partners for $2.45 per share in cash, for a total equity value of $891 million.

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OCTOBER 21, 2013 10:34 A.M.

CRM wrote:

Expected from ExactTarget - estimate 400 million revenue. Cool. How much loss? Also they paid $2.6 Billion!!! Billion!.

How many years will it take to make back the investment.

I hate the way analyst look at CRM. The stock is at $54, the analyst ups price target to $65. They increased the value of the company by $7.645 Billion!!!!

The company only generates $3.5 billion in revenue and they lose money. They tell you all the booked revenue, ask them how much is booked expenses? It cost money to provide the services that they sell.

This company grows revenue. Great. They also grow outstanding shares. 695 million shares outstanding. 2 years ago it was 110 million. Even with the 4 for 1 split, they have given away a huge number of shares.

About Tech Trader Daily

Tech Trader Daily is a blog on technology investing written by Barron’s veteran Tiernan Ray. The blog provides news, analysis and original reporting on events important to investors in software, hardware, the Internet, telecommunications and related fields. Comments and tips can be sent to: techtraderdaily@barrons.com.